In Vitro & In Vivo Approaches

Tissue engineering and reconstructive plastic surgery use common denominators to fix, improve, and sustain tissues and their functions. This can be accomplished by the use of autologous tissues in the form of flaps or transplants. Autologous tissue, on the other hand, is not always usable. This is one of the reasons for the growing interest in tissue engineering among plastic surgeons, which has resulted in beneficial cross-fertilizations between the areas. Tissue engineering is an interdisciplinary field that applies engineering and biological science ideas to the development of biologic substitutes that preserve, restore, or improve tissue functions. Tissue equivalents can be created for both clinical and in vitro testing purposes. For a variety of fundamental and practical reasons, the development of in vitro screening systems based on human cells and tissues has lately accelerated. First and foremost, there are ethical considerations to keep the number of test animals to a bare minimum.